1. Field
Embodiments relate to associating user equipment (UE) with multiple carriers in a wireless network.
2. Related Art
With more and more UEs being in use (especially more and more smart phones being in service), access rejections are observed in the field due to the overload of a specific carrier in a multi-carrier deployment. The situation may be largely mitigated if the load over multiple carriers is balanced. Load balance among the multiple carriers is typically a system design goal. Especially, when non-contiguous spectrum with multi-carriers of different bandwidth is involved, different areas may be covered by different numbers of carriers of different bands. Balanced load among the carriers is important in order to allow a more efficient utilization of the available spectrum resource. Furthermore, a common scenario is that UE density is different at different areas and multiple carriers could be deployed at hot spots with high mobile density; in most areas with normal user density, fewer carriers would be employed than at the hot spots.
Heterogeneous wireless networks (HetNets) are deployments of cells with differing coverage radii within a single geographic area. A typical configuration is one where macro (e.g., large) cells provide contiguous coverage over the area while pico, femto or metro (e.g., small) cells cover smaller areas that are associated with either traffic hot spots or coverage holes. Operators may deploy small cells with different carriers at hot spots within the coverage of a macro cell. When UEs move from a normal area into the hot spots with more carriers, UE traffic is split and the load balanced among the macro and small cell carriers at the hot spots.